BOLTON

AN ELDERLY dementia sufferer had to be taken in by a concerned neighbour after hospital doctors sent her back to her empty home in a taxi — still dressed in pyjamas and slippers.

Disorientated Florence Myerscough was unable to let herself in, and was 'soaked' in the rain before the neighbour came to her aid.

The 76-year-old, of Canada Street, Halliwell, was admitted to the Bolton Hospital with chronic back pain at tea time on Christmas Day, but discharged at about 10pm.

Daughter Karen Bye says she is furious the hospital did not contact her before sending her vulnerable mother home.

She said: “We were under the impression mum wasn’t coming home. If she was, then we should automatically have had a phone call to say she was being discharged. I got a phone call from her next door neighbour to say ‘I have got your mum here’. I said ‘You’re joking, it’s an impossibility’.

But Mrs Bye was left baffled and angrier still when she called the hospital to demand answers.

She said: "The doctor said he had cleaned up my mum’s foot. I said ‘what do you mean , she didn’t come in with a foot problem, you have got no right sending her home and saying take a few more tablets and she will be all right. That taxi driver has just dropped her off and driven off. She had no key, nothing.

"She has gone in with severe back pain and mood swings are up and down.

"He couldn’t stop apologising, but I said 'I’m not accepting your apology, I’m taking this further.'

“I admit I was furious, but I couldn’t help it. I said I want to make a complaint, I can’t believe you have discharged by mum and have put her in a taxi.

"She was in her pyjamas and slippers, because when the ambulance crew came she was in bed. She was wearing a coat when she came out, but was still in her pyjamas and slippers."

Mrs Bye, of St Matthew's Terrace, Halliwell, says she believes the care her mother, who is also a grandmother of six, received fell short of an acceptable standard.

http://bit.ly/2lwL1z8 
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 LANCASHIRE

 Reports of sexual offences by taxi drivers has more than doubled in three years

Data obtained by the Post reveals that 25 sexual offences by taxi drivers, private hire drivers, or anyone pretending to be a hired driver, were reported between April 2016 and March 2017 across Lancashire.

This was a rise from 11 from April 2014 to March 2015 and 21 from April 2015 to March 2016, showing a total of 57 for the last three financial years.

 Mark Selley, of Preston Hackney Carriage Association, said: “I cannot speak for all of Lancashire but in Preston, we have rigorous Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks in place to make sure that drivers are all of a certain standard.

 “All the drivers undertake a DBS check and these are done for everyone who is also renewing their licence. “As well as this, if drivers while licenced transgress in any serious way they will then have their licence taken off of them.”

 A spokesman for Lancashire Police said: “We are committed to securing justice for all victims of crimes of this type and we will continue to work closely with partners like the Crown Prosecution Service in order to achieve that. “Whenever anyone takes the brave step to come forward to the police making serious allegations of a sexual nature it is absolutely right that we carry out a thorough investigation. “We believe these figures demonstrate victims’ confidence in coming forward and reporting these crimes to the police, safe in the knowledge that we will deal with them professionally and sensitively.”

 National rise Figures obtained by the Guardian newspaper reveal that the overall number of alleged sexual offences committed by taxi or private hire drivers has risen by 20 per cent since 2014. The figures show there were at least 337 reported assaults between April 2016 and March 2017 in England and Wales; a rise from 282 in 2014/15. 

Katie Russell, a spokesperson for Rape Crisis England and Wales, said: “It’s an alarming figure but it is always hard to know whether the increase is due to a rise in crime taking place or an increase in sexual assaults being reported.”

Comment: Once again the Newspapers go for the alarming headline.

The fact is 21 offence's were reported year end March 16.

25 offence's were reported year end March 17.

That is a 19% increase in a year, less than the National average of 20%.

However that would not make such an alarming Stat would it ?





http://bit.ly/2CyabVq 
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NORTH SOMERSET

A Mercury freedom of information request to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) has revealed one in five aspiring cabbies held a criminal record.

Of the 1,248 applications to the DBS since 2012, 260 flagged up a criminal past with 1,653 offences between them – begging the question of who is driving you home this New Year’s Eve?

The Mercury asked North Somerset Council for figures relating to the outcome of criminals’ applications, but it said it did not hold any data due to DBS guidelines which require applications to be destroyed – so it is not known which offenders went on to become drivers.

But council licensing officer Sioux Isherwood said ‘a fair number proceed through the committee process and go on to hold a licence’.

Among offenders hoping to become taxi drivers, three were convicted for indecent assault on a woman aged over 16, two had been punished for indecent assault on a boy under 14, and one was caught taking indecent images of children.

Shockingly, two applicants had a previous conviction for causing death by reckless driving and 43 were caught drunk at the wheel.

Other motoring offences were commonly found by the DBS, and drug offences appeared on many applications.

Six applicants had been convicted of grievous bodily harm, while 59 applications featured a record of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Robbery was flagged on 12 applications, while 13 hopefuls had been caught with an offensive weapon in a public place.

The most common offences were theft (108), burglary (77) and driving while disqualified (71).

Taxi drivers are classed as self-employed and must apply to North Somerset Council, for a licence before signing on with a firm.

One layer of the process is a criminal records check which is completed by the DBS, which flags any convictions, cautions, warnings and reprimands on applicants’ records.

The council reviews applications in line with its criminal convictions policy, and can scrutinise applications by committee of councillors, who decide whether an applicant is ‘fit and proper’ to hold a licence.

http://bit.ly/2Cr5Dm7 
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Hull's taxi drivers are backing a new campaign to help keep us safe this New Year's Eve.

The Chairman of the Hull Hackney Carriage Association is encouraging us to take photos of the car and the driver as part of a clampdown on bogus taxi drivers.

Peter Nilsson says they want everyone to stay safe this New Year's Eve:

"The police are going to be helping us as much as possible. We are going to be having security marshals on the taxi ranks. Every taxi rank in the city centre is covered by CCTV. Standing on a taxi rank is going to be the safest place in the city to get a taxi.

"No legal-driving taxi driver will be offended by anybody taking a picture of him or taking a picture of the vehicle. If you've got worried parents, send your parents the picture so they know which vehicle you're travelling in.

"There's a lot of people getting taxis and they lose stuff. Trying to find the taxi driver after that is practically impossible because people don't have a clue which vehicle they've been in, this will stop it."
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MERSEYSIDE


Killers, paedophiles and rapists have applied to become taxi drivers in Merseyside.

The horrifying criminal pasts of people who wanted a taxi licence were revealed through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) by the Liverpool ECHO.

The shocking crimes people had been convicted of before applying to drive a cab include four counts of rape, 10 of manslaughter and more than 90 convictions for indecent assault - including 18 on girls under the age of 14 - since 2012.

There was also someone who had applied with a conviction of sexually assaulting a girl under 13 and data showed 16 convictions outlined on applications for making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child.

The DBS statistics showed that over the last five years more than 9,000 applications were submitted by people with previous convictions.

Following this startling discovery every council in Merseyside was sent an FOI to ask how many criminals had applied to be taxi drivers in their borough.

The ruling authorities were also asked if any applicants were successful in gaining a taxi licence despite their convictions and what the nature of the convictions for successful applicants were.

West Lancashire and Halton were also included due to the transient nature of the job and every council, apart from Knowsley, replied to the requests with varying degrees of information.

Most council responses were very limited, however Sefton Council revealed hundreds of drivers were issued a taxi licence despite criminal convictions between 2014 and 2017.

Some of those offences were committed by taxi drivers already working with a Sefton Council badge and the borough’s ruling authority still chose to continue the criminal’s licence.

In Halton the council responded to the FOI to say they could only give “very limited information” because of the laws and how they held the data.

They revealed that one applicant who had an assault and threatening behaviour conviction and another who had committed theft were granted a licence.

The ECHO understands that both private hire and Hackney carriage drivers across the county had concerns over who was applying for licences.

Drivers voiced their unease over people applying for licences after Knowsley Council scrapped the knowledge test.

Those who spoke out over the problem wished did not want to be identified, but said that the fact drivers had no knowledge of their local area was not the only worrying facto. They suggested that knowing you didn’t have to pass the test encouraged anyone to apply.

Among other applications subjected to DBS checks by councils were eight counts of causing death by dangerous, reckless or careless driving.

There was also someone who applied who had a conviction for voyeurism or recording a person doing a private act.

Thousands of people with convictions for drink driving and driving while disqualified had applied, alongside hundreds convicted of dangerous driving.

The figures do not show if applicants with these convictions were given licences.

At minimum, every driver is subject to a DBS check and councils have discretion over whether to disregard previous offences.

Final decisions on whether to grant people licences are made by the licensing committee.

A spokesman for the DBS said: “The protection of children and vulnerable groups is of paramount importance and DBS checks are an important tool for informing employment decisions.”

http://bit.ly/2EewkbL

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SAN FRANCISCO — A group of Uber’s largest shareholders have agreed to sell a significant stake in the ride-hailing giant at a steep discount, according to two people familiar with the process who were not allowed to comment on it publicly.

The sale is a big step for the company as it looks to calm investors and pave the way for an initial public offering in 2019.

SoftBank Group and a consortium of investors plan to purchase 17.5 percent of Uber at a price of about $33 a share. That puts the value of the company at about $48 billion — a notable drop from the near $70 billion valuation Uber had commanded about a year and a half ago.

“We look forward to working with the purchasers to close the overall transaction, which we expect to support our technology investments, fuel our growth, and strengthen our corporate governance,” Matt Kallman, an Uber spokesman, said in a statement.

The deal, part of a tender offer process initiated by SoftBank last month, will allow some of Uber’s earliest shareholders, including employees and venture capital firms like Benchmark and First Round, to cash out and receive what will prove to be a large payday.

But the discount is a humbling coda on a rough year for Uber, which has been rocked by a series of scandals, from claims of sexual harassment to revelations of a program meant to deceive law enforcement.

The tender offer came at a particularly bad time for the company. Last month, Uber disclosed that it had covered up a security breach that had compromised the personal data of 57 million rider and driver accounts, and SoftBank was able to talk down the price of its investment.

http://nyti.ms/2CkQmDj